July 24, 2009

A few thoughts on the Thursday panels I attended at Comic-Con. I'll take them in the order in which they occurred (and more of my impressions are on my Twitter feed):

First panel of the day was the cast of "The Middleman" reading "The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse," the "finale" of the show, which was not filmed but which has been released as a graphic novel by Viper Comics. It was an incredibly enjoyable hour. It was a treat to see the show's cast whip through Javier Grillo-Marxuach's deliciously tongue-twisting dialogue in person, and how could I not be in awe of a script that mentioned a bus made of fur and a Fatboy Industries stormtroopers riding kangaroos. Sweet crispy wontons that panel was a good time!

I'd give away the revelations of what happens in the episode, but you really should check out the graphic-novel version. Some high points, however: A moving quote from "Doctor Who," a classic quote from "Star Wars," Wendy wearing every fanboy's dream outfit (well, the script said she did, Natalie Morales didn't actually wear the costume to the panel), and some shocking developments for Our Hero, the Middleman. It was a very enjoyable affair, but I'm sad that there isn't more "Middleman" to come on TV. Ah well.

Next up was a "Battlestar Galactica" panel with Richard Hatch, writer Michael Taylor, composer Bear McCreary and science advisor Kevin Grazier. Grazier said that he told the writers that the Galactica jumping into the atmosphere -- which happened near the start of Season 3 -- would have broken up the ship. But given how cool the "Adama maneuver" was, in his script notes he said to "go for it." Tom DeSantis, who worked on a version of "Battlestar" that didn't go forward, said that three Vipers had been constructed for that production, but when the studio wouldn't pay for storage, they were destroyed. With chainsaws. Argh! McCreary said he'd like to take his "Battlestar" concerts -- which take place this weekend at Comic-Con -- on the road and maybe even play the Vancouver Opera House, where the show's famous Opera House scenes were filmed.

The "Burn Notice" panel was another high point. It might as well have been called "The Bruce Campbell Show." At one point, panelist Jay Karnes, who plays the arms dealer Brennan on the show, asked if all questions could be directed to Campbell. "It's like watching a rock star work the crowd," Karnes said. And he did indeed have a funny comeback to anything that happened. "But I digress" became his mantra during the panel, but nobody cared about the digressions. They were examples of really good improv comedy.

One fan wanted to know if Bruce wrote the funny lines, a thought that amused creator Matt Nix, who does indeed sound exactly like the Michael Westen's voiceovers when he talks. Another fan wanted to know why Sam Axe doesn't fight more, and Nix explained that "he doesn't really go karate time on people." The thinking is that he has a "good right hook" and the fights are over quickly.

Seth Peterson, who plays Michael's brother Nate, said early in Season 1 he logged on to the USA message boards to see the reaction to his character. People hated his goatee, and next time he played nate, the "ferret on his face," as Michael put it on the show, was gone. "I think that had a lot to do with the progression of the love" between the brothers, Peterson said.

Campbell joked that he'd convinced Nix to write a horror/spy hybrid called "Dead Notice." And Nix provided a voiceover for that project: "There's a reason you want to fight
a zombie with a chainsaw..." Later, Nix said that he'd thought about how fun it would be to do a "Burn Notice" film (which isn't happening, just to be clear): "We should crash two helicopters together. Maybe we need a film budget!" Nix also talked about how he would not use digital explosions on the show because they look more real and more cool. But a recent explosion the show's explosion guys rigged up was more powerful than they expected -- it wasn't supposed to be a huge boom, but it actually moved the house they used off its foundations.

After the panel, I (and several other writers) briefly spoke to Jay Karnes in the "Burn Notice" room. One person asked Karnes how Brenned was different from Dutch Wagenbach, his "Shield" character. He said though the role of Dutch was "gold," some of the darker "Shield" stuff is hard for him to watch even today. Brennen, on the other hand, is "just fun" to play. Brennen won't be in any more Season 3 episodes, but a return in Season 4 should not be ruled out. Karnes is hoping to return, he said. The most important line Brennen has ever said, the actor noted, was, "You'll hear from me again."

The "Dexter" panel was a little dull, truth be told. It was late in the day, when my energy and caffeine levels were waning, true. But I also felt like I'd heard the questions and the answers 100 times before. It was all in the area of "Dexter has darkness, we all have darkness, he's funny but he's dark, he tries to fit in but he has a dark passenger, Deb swears a lot, Rita would never believe Dexter does this dark stuff," yada yada. Maybe I've just read (and written) a lot about the show, but it all felt overly familiar. I wasn't a big fan of the third season of "Dexter"; I felt as though this was a show with a limited shelf life and it was rapidly approaching the point at which it would become repetitive. Which was also the word I would use to describe the "Dexter" Comic-Con lovefest (everyone loves their roles, loves their castmates, yada yada).

There were a few news bits that came out of the panel, however: The show's Season 4 promo is up on the Showtime site and also embedded here; there will be "Dexter" prequel Webisodes on that site this fall; guest star John Lithgow, who plays the "Trinity killer," knows what will happen at the end of the season, but the rest of the cast does not; Keith Carradine is back as FBI agent Lundy. And when Season 4 starts, Dexter and Rita's baby boy has been born. He's named Harrison as a tribute to Dex's father Harry.

Comments

Awesome. I would have loved to have had one of those vipers. Too bad they were destroyed. Do you know if there is a CD out of Battlestar music? I think I might find it soothing. Can't wait to hear your impressions about Stargate Universe.

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